


Apothecary Drabbles

by Aster_Universe



Category: Original Work
Genre: Apothecary, Drabble, Fantasy, Gen, Magic, Witches, Wizards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:39:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aster_Universe/pseuds/Aster_Universe
Summary: Just a little drabble or two about a witch to work on my writing.





	1. Chapter 1

 

Alex sighed, closing her journal and fussing around with the bit of a mess she had created on the front counter of the apothecary. Fussing around with the journal and putting away the ink had given the single customer enough time to collect his items and bring them up to the counter to be rung-up. His arms were filled to the brim with a large pewter cauldron suitable for beginner’s potions he’d likely be doing at school. A little cautiously he stretched to lay his load on the countertop.  
  
“Uhm, I would like to purchase these.” He shifted a little and started pulling out his wallet from his bag. With a little huff as he tugged to remove it from the little lobster claw clasp on his wallet strap.

Alex quickly sorted through all the items he’d brought up. Quickly totaling the purchase and logging it in the record book Alex calculated all the additional taxes on a small notepad. Looking up as the boy panted and slammed the wallet down on the counter.  
  
“You’re total’s thirty-six fifty.”

The boy snatched up his wallet again and flipped through his bills before pulling out the exact amount of bills and rooting through his coin pouch and counting out five ten-cent coins. Placing the coins on top of the bills he plopped them in Alex’s hand before staring at all the items he’d picked out.

“Do you require a complimentary delivery service?” Alex knew the kid needed it. Given the way, he’d teetered and panted as he’d walked over he wasn’t going to be able to walk more than a few feet before dropping it all on himself, and judging by his purchase he was too new to his studies to be able to displace his items by himself. Although her boss was likely to give her an earful for doing anything for free the poor tween in front of her seemed to be in desperate need of assistance.

“Really! I didn’t know that kind of service was offered! What do you need to know about where you’re sending them? Is it an address? Geographic coordinates or-“

“Honestly, I can just send them to your address. Just tell me and I’ll send them away.”

“Oh-Okay! Uh- it’s the one-hundredth room in the Eastern Seafront inn on Seafront lane.”

“The building number?” The boy seemed to be rather self-conscious about his answers after his quick serious of questions.

“Oh! Right, it’s 1670.”

With another sigh, Alex quickly scrawled the address on a sheet of paper in red ink before laying the note on top and chanting a quick cantor the items quickly popped out of the space and were replaced with a small dust cloud that billowed outwards with a gush of air and dissipated into the room. The boy’s eyes lit up with delight before he started stuffing his wallet back into his bag.

“Thank you so much!” And he was dashing out of the store before she could get his name to write down in the records. Glancing at the list of beginner’s school items she decided to let it slide for today. No need to make a fuss. Plopping down back at the desk she started sketching designs for rituals and enchantments.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex’s days at the apothecary were always rather uneventful. Even with her Uncle’s boisterous personality and narcissism he didn’t stir up enough chaos to actually affect her day. His rather maniac concentration on formulating new potions, tonics and elixirs he typically only left his quarters once a week. This morning had been even less interesting than normal days and Alex’s free time had led her to completely fill up her journal. And now she’d have to wait until her lunch break before she could sneak off to buy a new one.

As she continued to contemplate her circumstances a loud bang originating from above her shook the building. She quickly dashed upstairs holding her journal against her side and pulling herself up using the railing she flung herself into the upstairs hallway. Her uncle’s quarters were leaking smoke and the flooring seemed to be covered in a teal goop that glistened and sparkled. Bracing herself for any sudden rush of smoke from the room she carefully yanked the door open.

The room was covered in the goop and her uncle was rushing around trying to clean it off his delicate glassware to preserve their stability. Carefully stepping away Alex grimaced at the thought of possibility having to aid in cleaning up the unknown substance. Last time he’d managed to wreck the room it had smelled like Sulphur and Feces for a month. It’d only just gone away and now he’d managed to get some kind of goop all over the walls.

Biting her lip Alex checked the clock on the wall. It was two minutes before her lunch break. Two minutes. Quietly she tiptoed back down the stairwell and plopped into her desk. Maybe if she didn’t remind him he was there he’d think it was Terry’s shift. Terry was banned from cleaning after he had managed to turn every item he touched a unique shade of neon.

Alex waited out the two minutes before bounding to the front door and flipping around the open sign. With a flick of her wrist she added a little note about when they’d re-open just in case a customer wanted to come in for the first time that day.

Unlike her Uncle’s shop most of the others on the street had more employees and were open during her lunch break. With a pip in her step she strolled along into her favorite stationary shop.

As she entered she was greeted with the scent of warm caramel and chocolate and the large selection of writing materials they had in stock. The various displays with pens and nibs writing by themselves and fancy inks that changed color or sparkled with spells or charms. But she’d come here for a new journal and that selection was massive. Staring up at the wall of journals towering over her she approached the small table set in the middle of the floor facing them. Quickly she flipped through the logs to find one with mixed lined and blank pages, a heavier weight paper, one that worked well with inks, pencils and markers or pigments and leather-bound that can be quickly inscribed with her information and a recall enchantment.

She still had to sort through a few different sizes and ornamentation that were available. Selecting a medium-sized journal with simple iron hardware and light calf leather binding she moved her finger over the image and with a quick activation of the hidden enchantment the book materialized over the table hovering for her to pluck it out of the air.

A gasp echoed in the corner she was tucked away in Alex whirled around to come face to face with the boy who’d been at the apothecary a few days ago. He stared up at her his eyes glistening with curiosity and his hands tucked up against his chest holding some writing supplies against him.

“How’d you do that? That was so cool! You were concentrated and then all of a sudden that book just poofed there! Hey! Can you teach me how to do that? I want to get a couple o’ notebooks for school but I can’t reach them.”

Alex looked at the kid a little apprehensively and set the journal off to the side before stepping off to the side so he would have space to leaf through the catalog. The kid quickly bounded up to the table and flipped to the basic journal he wanted. Sighing Alex pulled her old journal out of her back pocket and lipped through to a page containing an enchantment that’d allow her to see the condition of the boy’s magic and ability. Softly tapping the page her vision shifted and psychedelic colors invaded her view coloring the world in swirling, undulating stripes. Staring at the boy she was relieved to find he was mature enough to use the catalog. He didn’t seem to be any kind of outlier but it was rather odd the two times she’d seen him he hadn’t been with an adult.

“Uhm, are you just going to stare?” The boy’s colors tilted slightly as he moved around a little.

Embarrassed, Alex cut off the enchantment and blushed slightly before tapping the hidden enchantment in the image.

“Here, you’ll need to cast this.” Alex moved her hand away as the boy placed his palm atop the image.

“Alright!” The boy’s face wrinkled with concentration as he pushed magic into the circle and tripped the limit activating the circle. The book he wanted poofed in front of him and with a wide grin he snatched it out of the air jostling the little items he’d placed on the table. Turning to Alex he shoved the notebook at her in glee. “Thank you so much I really needed to get this and-“

“It’s fine kid.” Alex was gathering her stuff and planning to head up to purchase her things before the kid tapped her on her elbow.

“Uhm, thank you though. It’s really great you helped me again. I’m Nick, I wasn’t really raised in a high-magic area so I don’t really know everything.” He shifted a little having returned to being bashful. The kid really switched on a dime.

Sighing, she smiled at him. “It’s really no big. If you really need to know something you can ask me at my shop. I’ll be there over the summer.”

The boy’s face lit up again and he nodded before returning to the catalog and preparing to summon another good.


	3. Chapter 3

The summer hadn’t been particularly interesting this year. The usual mischief she’d manage to get herself into was rather limited by her little ‘job’ working for her Uncle. She was stuck doing clerk work every day and Terry had taken his vacation for the past few weeks leaving her to run the shop alone. Thankfully they didn’t have a large amount of in-person customers.

The shop ran primarily on mail orders. A person would mail their billing information and address or use an order book if they were a frequent customer and she’d quickly process the orders, record them and typically displace them to a location specified by the customer. Occasionally, a particularly volatile item could need to be hand delivered on her way home or mailed back to the customer.

The orders weren’t much of a hassle and could often be done before the shop needed to open leaving her with a whole day to just stay in the shop on the off-chance they had another customer.

The boy hadn’t come to see her about something yet but given his confusion, he was probably going to come and ask her something about basic magic or the city.

Leaning back in her chair and using her old enchantments she’d carved into the chair to keep her balance Alex lazily created small purple clouds from the tips of her fingers. The clouds formed various shapes, trees, whales, a bunny rabbit before dissipating as she created more to take their place. After a while, Alex decided to stop polluting the poor room with smoke and busied herself with opening some of the windows and shutters.

The shop was quite pleasant. A small little house that had been converted into an apothecary and living quarters by her grandfather it was no wonder her family all loved the thing. The walls were a pleasant cream color and the large windows helped illuminate the building without the need for candles or other lights. The tall shelves that occupied the floor filled to the brim with equipment, textbooks, and some larger ingredients were made of a sturdy wood and stained a charming deep brown.

Unlike other apothecaries that were closed off and had a permanent musty air, the Engel family apothecary had a lighter atmosphere. The contrast had led to them becoming rather popular even with the low number of physical customers they received they made quite a large amount in orders.

A little charm rang out signaling a new customer. Gazing up at them she saw a rather thin-faced figure cloaked in a navy-blue robe that covered every inch of skin below his collar with fabric. His rather large old-fashioned hat was a bright blue that accentuated the jaundiced-look of his face. It was not a customer.

Her older brother glided over to the counter and flipped the little bar up before stepping up to the apothecary cabinets and pulling out some cinnamon.

“Well, Alex. How goes your summer?”

“Fine.” It wasn’t that she disliked Peter, he’d just always been indifferent towards her and rather distant. He’d always been distant, even when they’d been young and she’d tried to play with him. He had always found rituals, alchemy and earth-based magicks far more interesting than her preferred surreal enchantments and reality-bending greater spells.

He collected the rest of the items and jotted everything down in the log book before putting what he owed in her register.

“See you around Alex. I’ll be at dinner tonight.” He drawled before quickly swishing out of the building and letting the door close behind his exit.

Curious, Alex peered at the logbook trying to decipher her brother’s awful handwriting. She quickly realized why he’d come in person. He’d needed a large amount of highly-reactive ingredients for whatever alchemy experiment he was conducting in his dorm room.

Settling back down into her seat Alex glanced at the large apothecary cabinet she’d learned to root through at a young age. She remembered when she helped out in the shop alongside her parents. They would never do something like that now. Her father had risen from a little shop owner working hard every day alongside his eccentric brother to become a member of the merchant's council and a representative that advised the King’s council. He didn’t have time for small stuff anymore.

Her mother had always been a little reserved. She preferred to teach her assistants the minutia of delicate alchemy and engineering that she specialized in. Alex’s specialties took more after her long-dead grandmother who had been an influential member of the early witches council. She’d been powerful enough to aid in the enchantment and raising of barriers and spells over the capital city.

Even with all these rather impressive figures in Alex’s family, she’d never particularly been interested in following in any of their footsteps. Which led to her being forced to look after the shop after the incident of last summer.

She pulled out some books from under the desk and dusted them off before re-reading her theory book on magicks, energy, and enchantment. It was dull but it’d suffice to distract her.

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, this is the first thing I've really posted.


End file.
